Sunday, June 24, 2007

Good Will Hunting

It was my day off. I was sitting at home when the phone rang. It was a call from a crew that had a question about the Aurora edit system. They explained to me what they wanted to do. It was a fairly simple thing, but the equipment wasn't set correctly to accomplish what they wanted.

It took less than a minute to walk them through it. I told them which setting to change. They made the change and everything was fine. I'd be surprised if the call lasted three minutes.

The guys who needed the assist are competent and capable and might have figured it out on their own. It's possible. I've gotten multiple calls in one day and it's not unusual for the caller to figure it out for themselves while they're asking the question.

Sometimes I can help, but I'm pretty casual about it.

If I can help, I will. Not everyone has that attitude. In fact, I've had the experience of asking people for help and being turned down. Ouch. It's taken a while, but I've learned who I can count on.

The really strange thing is that I'm still willing to train people and share what I know. If there's something I can do and I can teach it to somebody else, I will. Even when it comes to helping people who haven't been as willing to help me.

I don't know what you would call that, although I'm sure "fool" comes to mind. Look, I'm not trying to be any particular type of person (and I'm really not looking for a pat on the back). It's just how I'm wired.

In the rat race world we live in, my willingness to share knowledge with others might come back to haunt me someday.